Latest / Bring The Thunder Podcast / A GLARING WEAKNESS!? Breaking Down OKC's Fatal Flaw Vs Top Teams!
Transcript
- 0:03You're listening to the Bring the Thunder Podcast, a podcast
- 0:06by fans, for fans. Indeed you are welcome
- 0:11everybody, to another episode of the Bring the Thunder Podcast.
- 0:15This episode's coming out pretty pretty quickly after the the
- 0:18loss to Boston. And because of that, we have a
- 0:21little bit of a topic for this episode talking about maybe some
- 0:24concerns, maybe some some stressful things that we've seen
- 0:27with this team recently. Joe, why don't you dive deeper
- 0:30into what we will be doing today?
- 0:31Two and six gentlemen, that is number 2 and.
- 0:34Six against the Pistons, the Celtics and the Spurs this year.
- 0:38Now we know we're one and one against Boston.
- 0:40We're O and one against Detroit. But who played and we're also
- 0:44what are? What are we one and three?
- 0:46Against the Spurs one. And four, we're one and four
- 0:49against the Spurs and we're one and two against the other two
- 0:53so. There you go.
- 0:54So. We'll be breaking down what's
- 0:56gone wrong in those matchups. And is it time?
- 1:00To be a little bit skeptical of this OKC.
- 1:02Thunder team heading into the playoffs here.
- 1:05Almost. Savvier.
- 1:06I guess I'll kick it. To you to start.
- 1:09Your thoughts on, you know, overall what went wrong in those
- 1:13matchups? And and why?
- 1:15Yeah, I feel like breaking each one down, I'd say probably it's
- 1:22more of a matchup specific thing.
- 1:25I took some notes for for that Celtics game.
- 1:28And I think from them, like Tatum and Brown are just a
- 1:32matchup nightmare cause most of our guards that would guard on
- 1:35the perimeter are just a little bit smaller than they are.
- 1:39Spurs have a similar, I guess, matchup issue with Wimby just
- 1:43outsizing all our, you know, boards and centers essentially.
- 1:47And the Pistons, their greatest strength is physicality.
- 1:52And also they have a weird match up with Cade being a 68 point
- 1:57guard. It feels like it's a common
- 2:00theme between all three of these team teams is physicality and
- 2:04size differences, whether at point guard or the board
- 2:08position or the center position. And I guess I will jokingly say
- 2:13like, let's, you know, draft a 74 center or I don't know, you
- 2:19know, maybe slide some taller players into the line up or
- 2:24something like that. Maybe not.
- 2:26That's not too much of a joke either.
- 2:27I think I texted you guys for like a Celtics match up.
- 2:30Like I don't like undersized players or players that can't
- 2:33space the floor. Like I heart maybe not the best
- 2:36match up for a Celtics series versus Spurs.
- 2:40He'd be perfect to fit in. J Wills probably a lot better
- 2:44against the Celtics versus a Spurs match up.
- 2:47And then Pistons, it feels like we just need as much physicality
- 2:51on the floor like Crusoe, Dort, J Will, I heart all alongside
- 2:56SGA, maybe for a fourth quarter run.
- 2:58So they all kind of pose different things.
- 3:01But the weakness seem to be kind of all the same where they're
- 3:04trying to slow us down, create their own transition
- 3:08opportunities and then also beat us in the rebounding battle.
- 3:11The Celtics did that pretty well.
- 3:13It feels like Wimby and the Spurs with their guards that are
- 3:16a little bit taller do that really well.
- 3:18And then same issue with the Pistons as well.
- 3:20Like if you're able to, you know, limit us from three-point
- 3:24shooting percentages and, you know, just have that
- 3:27physicality, get that rebounds. Those are the main, I guess,
- 3:31issues that we're running into. It's a common theme between all
- 3:35three of them. Whether I'm worried or not.
- 3:37Not really. When it comes to the playoffs,
- 3:41Mark's shown that he'll limit the rotation to the right guys.
- 3:45And like the Celtics game, I rewatched it.
- 3:49We sat SGA in a moment where we typically wouldn't when it came
- 3:53to a playoff series. Like we started going down 10
- 3:55points. SGA would have gotten in even
- 3:58before that lead was cut at all. So not not too worried.
- 4:02What do you think, Gabe? For me, it depends.
- 4:05It's pretty matchup dependent. You know, Boston, I'm just going
- 4:07to come out immediately and say they're one of the ones that I'm
- 4:09not concerned about. The reason being is we talked
- 4:12about this a lot in the post game.
- 4:13They live and die by the three and against us, more often than
- 4:15not, I think they'll die by it because our defense is very
- 4:17good. It forces that it takes.
- 4:19I mean, Peyton Pritchard is a very talented player.
- 4:21When you're taking shots that are 5 feet behind the
- 4:23three-point line, that's just not a good shot.
- 4:25And he hit those last night and that's why they won.
- 4:27Like, that was big bad shot. It is a bad, like, I agree with
- 4:31that statement. That's not a good shot.
- 4:33So like when you have to rely on hitting all these threes against
- 4:36the team that's one of the best defensive teams we've seen in
- 4:38decades, it's just not a good look.
- 4:40So I'm not concerned about Boston.
- 4:42What bothers me more is San Antonio and Detroit.
- 4:45San Antonio forces us to do something that we don't normally
- 4:48do and that's turn the ball over.
- 4:49And our times meeting against San Antonio, they've won the
- 4:52turnover battle over half of the time.
- 4:53I believe they won three of the five.
- 4:55One of them we tied and one of them we won.
- 4:57We don't turn the ball over them.
- 4:58We are a very smart, intelligent team.
- 5:00We're good at forcing turnovers. San Antonio runs at such a quick
- 5:04pace and such a breakneck speed that it really puts our team out
- 5:07of position, I think. And I think we figured that out
- 5:09in our last game against them. I I think we kind of got a hold
- 5:12of that better. But ultimately they're just good
- 5:14at forcing us to do things we don't normally do.
- 5:17And that makes me uncomfortable. I don't like the way that looks.
- 5:19It's happened. It's not like it was a fluke.
- 5:21It's happened multiple times this season against them.
- 5:23They just force us to do things we don't want and they run the
- 5:26transition phenomenally against us.
- 5:28They always seem to get down immediately, force us into spots
- 5:31we don't want to be, and that's because we're turning the ball
- 5:33over. As for Detroit, you talk about
- 5:35Saturday, they play more physical.
- 5:36They do and I love it. Like that's I want matchups like
- 5:38that. If anything, that's my finals.
- 5:40That's what I would want would be US against Detroit.
- 5:41I think that would be so fun. But what stands out to me in
- 5:45terms of kind of concerning me with Detroit is that physical
- 5:49battle that ultimately will end up not getting a whistle.
- 5:52They'll let that become physical.
- 5:53That's going to lead to injuries.
- 5:54It's going to lead to exhaustion on both sides.
- 5:56It's going to be rough. It's going to be physical.
- 5:58It's going to and that scares me because ultimately we know this
- 6:01team has been all over the place.
- 6:03We fought through hell and back trying not to get hurt this year
- 6:05and playing a team like Detroit, who it's going to get physical
- 6:09chat against Jalen Duran, that scares me.
- 6:11Duran is insanely strong. I would be worried.
- 6:14I'd hope hearts on them more, but that's what concerns me
- 6:17about those two teams. Detroit so physical, they're so
- 6:19good and I don't think that they get a lot of call.
- 6:21I don't think the IT would be a not heavily whistled match up
- 6:25and I want that, but it would concern me.
- 6:27I'd be scared for our players. And then like I mentioned with
- 6:29Detroit or excuse me, like I mentioned with San Antonio, they
- 6:32just push us, man. They do things we don't like to
- 6:34get under our skin and, and it's it's becoming a mental thing too
- 6:37with them that that's what concerns me.
- 6:39Yeah, for me, I'm not worried about Detroit at all.
- 6:42Like. It's actually the perfect match
- 6:44up for OK C They're kind of similar physical.
- 6:47Not a great 3 point shooting team.
- 6:50You got the only way to beat OK C is 3 point shooting.
- 6:53I mean that's like really it. And also if you have mismatches,
- 6:58Detroit doesn't have any and I'm sure we'll see that.
- 7:00I know that Kay probably won't play in the next what we play
- 7:03them in a couple days or a week or so, but we'll see us run them
- 7:06off the floor pretty easily. I think with Boston, I'm a bit
- 7:10concerned. I'll take a little from each of
- 7:13you there. Sabre brought up a good point.
- 7:14Like we're a little undersized for their big forwards and
- 7:17that's why I keep mentioning to people on our lives and just in
- 7:20general, like Lou's got to start bro.
- 7:22Because Lou's our biggest defender and Lou's not even tall
- 7:25like. Lou's what, 6?
- 7:274 But he's a big dude, but he's not huge.
- 7:31So it's it's it's. Interesting.
- 7:33We got to keep. Lou on the floor out there
- 7:35against Boston, that limits our offense.
- 7:37While they're chucking up threes on a good night for Boston, they
- 7:39can run us out of the gym. Now I will say like they had a
- 7:43really good shooting night last night and we didn't and it was
- 7:46still like a 5 point game with with like a minute and a half
- 7:49two minutes left. And I also think the rotations
- 7:52were just poor. But Savio brought up another
- 7:55good point that like you know, SGA will come back in sooner,
- 7:59but we'll see. One concern I do have, I know
- 8:01he's played like a handful of games and I'm Jada because these
- 8:05top teams hasn't been good. I think he's averaging like 14
- 8:08points on like 45%. Not good.
- 8:14And I know that he could get better and get back into his
- 8:18groove. But he's got to do that.
- 8:19Because the play offs are starting soon, like really soon,
- 8:22and if we're going into the play offs and we're not, you know,
- 8:25fully ready to go and that includes J dub we'll.
- 8:29Just say we can't drop. In one or two games against the
- 8:31eighth seed and all of a sudden you got to battle against the
- 8:33eighth seed and then you get to the second round and you're
- 8:35playing like Denver again. It's not a good situation for
- 8:38OKC to be in. So they got to be ready and then
- 8:40the Spurs. Here's what I'll say about San
- 8:43Antonio. They got us early in the season.
- 8:47I'll be honest, they were better.
- 8:48They looked like a matchup nightmare and they look really
- 8:51good this year. They still do.
- 8:54I I stand by it. I think OKC figured them out in
- 8:57that last game at home. I really do.
- 8:59I mean, they absolutely destroyed San Antonio, held them
- 9:02under 100, blew them out at home, wasn't much of A close
- 9:06game at all and pretty much got whatever they wanted.
- 9:08And that's without, you know. Jared.
- 9:12McCain shooting off the bench and you know, we had Kenny on on
- 9:16Wenbanama a lot, so I'm not. That's a series we could talk.
- 9:20About when we get when it gets there.
- 9:22I'll I'll also have to see how San Antonio was doing in the
- 9:24playoffs like in their seven game series.
- 9:27But that Celtics matchup scares the hell out of me.
- 9:29I'm not going to lie SAP here. Yeah, I completely agree with a
- 9:35lot of the points that you guys just made.
- 9:37I have some quick stats to read off OKC against the Nuggets,
- 9:42Cavs, Wolves, Lakers, Knicks are 10 and 2.
- 9:45So that helps, you know, us make a better point of we're not just
- 9:49bad against all the elite teams, just maybe particularly.
- 9:54Yeah, just a handful. And then I guess the other part
- 9:58was that was the main stat there.
- 10:01But I did want to lean into what you're mentioning about J Dub.
- 10:04I think he's got to be that consistent #2 that's probably
- 10:07the biggest fix against all three of these teams.
- 10:09I mean, if he gets back to playing elite defense on from
- 10:13the perimeter and from kind of the center position, we need his
- 10:16rebounding. We need his size in general.
- 10:18Like he needs to play a lot better on ball reps, you know,
- 10:22against the tougher defensive opponents because when he's
- 10:25generally out there with SGA and Lou Dort, he's usually the guy.
- 10:29He's the guy that's guarding the second best player.
- 10:31Or you know, if Lou Dort's not out there, he's guarding the
- 10:34best forward out there. So I feel like he can also be
- 10:38the better secondary playmaker. I know they kind of had
- 10:43different minutes in the last game, but I feel like the line
- 10:46UPS around J Dub weren't as productive maybe as the ones
- 10:51around SGA from a floor spacing perspective.
- 10:54I think he needs maybe a little bit more support with maybe
- 10:58having more shooters out there with him.
- 11:00That's just my personal opinion. I think Mark kind of put him in
- 11:03a tough spot, at least against this Celtics lineup, but those
- 11:08are the main things that we can kind of improve on and just up
- 11:12our size. Have Jada playing better and I
- 11:16mean Chet and SGA been playing pretty much at a All Star level.
- 11:21I did have a question for you guys here.
- 11:24So what fixes do you guys want to see before the play offs?
- 11:28I know me and Joe mentioned some.
- 11:30What do you think, Gabe? I mean, not just to repeat what
- 11:33you guys were saying, talk about Jada, because that's again,
- 11:35that's kind of the one you can keep going back to.
- 11:37But I want to see guys like Isaiah Joe, guys like McCain.
- 11:41I want to see them in certain games where our defense is
- 11:44handling business well. I want to see them get more
- 11:46minutes than they're getting because there's some games where
- 11:48they really fluctuate. And it's kind of concerns me and
- 11:51makes me feel like the way that we kind of saw what happened to
- 11:53Wiggins halfway through the season where he was getting
- 11:55really consistent minutes and then all of a sudden it just
- 11:57started tanking and tanking. And I understand why.
- 11:59Like Wiggins, I get it. I understand why he went down.
- 12:01I wish he didn't. But my fear is we get into a
- 12:04playoff series where Mark gets really, really stubborn with his
- 12:08starting line up, essentially where Isaiah, Joe and McCain
- 12:11maybe suddenly are getting 10 minutes apiece because they
- 12:15didn't kind of the Wiggins treatment where they don't come
- 12:17out. And if they don't make their
- 12:18first 3, that we might not see him come in again.
- 12:21And that's something that we have not seen too much recently.
- 12:23Joe, I know you and I recently been really giving Mark credit
- 12:25for doing well with the Subs. But there have been some games
- 12:27where ultimately it feels like we genuinely lose the game
- 12:30because the Subs weren't correct.
- 12:31And it's tough because we always say like, what a horrible job to
- 12:35have to be the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder right now
- 12:37because Oh my goodness, so much talent.
- 12:39But at the same time, when it comes down to a really close
- 12:42game that's in the playoffs and we're we're not hitting the
- 12:45we're not hitting our shots. We can't get things figured out.
- 12:48But at the same time, our defense is struggling.
- 12:50He's got to sit there and look at Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso,
- 12:52Isaiah Joe, Jared McCain and decide which one of these guys
- 12:55do I put in right now. And that's really tough.
- 12:58And that's something that I want to see get improved is
- 12:59ultimately I want to see a couple of those guys really
- 13:02cement a reason for why they should be the one who's getting
- 13:06minutes. Cason, he has streaks where he's
- 13:08so, so helpful because that offensive part of his game
- 13:11starts to rise. The defense is literally always
- 13:13there. Cason is always going to be an
- 13:14elite defender. The offense is so streaky.
- 13:18It's super streaky where and it's not necessarily where it's
- 13:20like Lou Dort, where Dort can just Dort shooting.
- 13:23He's shooting no matter what. Cason just decide that the
- 13:26confidence is gone and he's not shooting three shots and he's
- 13:30done. And then guys like Caruso, you
- 13:33don't want to trade out that veteran presence in a playoff
- 13:35scenario. You want that.
- 13:36You know what he brings and when he's on.
- 13:38Same thing when he's on. Holy crap, Joe, we were talking
- 13:40about last night. He can win US a game by himself
- 13:43if he comes and hits three of his threes.
- 13:44So then there's the argument for him.
- 13:46But then you got both Joe and McCain, two guys who are snipers
- 13:50who can come in and absolutely carry us in terms of three-point
- 13:52shooting, in which we have a guard who leads the NBA and is
- 13:55one of the best at creating open shots.
- 13:58But then the downside is they're not the best defenders.
- 14:00So I want to see a couple bench guys step up and really show
- 14:05that they are the reason they need to be played.
- 14:06So that way Mark doesn't get put into this tough scenario where
- 14:09he's got to pick between 6 different guys and ultimately
- 14:12feels like he makes the wrong choice.
- 14:13So. Unfortunate that we got here
- 14:15because, you know, we. We tried our best, I can't lie.
- 14:19But what we just broke down was it's the rotations and making
- 14:22shots. That's all it is.
- 14:24Like, OK, C, they're going to win games if they make their
- 14:28shots and their coach doesn't lose them the game.
- 14:30That's pretty much what we just told you, and I guess that's all
- 14:33we've been saying the whole year.
- 14:34I'll do one better, Joe. We've been saying that since we
- 14:36started this podcast. That has been the most, it's the
- 14:40most common thing with OK C because we're that good.
- 14:43We're so good and we've been so good that the depth and the
- 14:46amount of talent this team has, it's it's, it's a blessing and a
- 14:50weakness. It really is.
- 14:51It's a curse and a blessing because it's it's so nice to
- 14:55have all these different rotations to throw out.
- 14:56But ultimately what happens when every single player off that
- 14:59bench isn't feeling it? What do you do then?
- 15:01You have no one to turn to. And now all of a sudden it turns
- 15:04into what last night looked like where she is doing everything in
- 15:07his power to win the game and no one else is showing up.
- 15:10It rising at the Raptors game earlier in the season, same
- 15:13thing. Shay was doing everything in his
- 15:15power and not a single player could score off the bench.
- 15:18And ultimately that's what happened.
- 15:19That Shay cannot win every single game for us.
- 15:22He's got to have guys to step up and it's Mark's job to decide
- 15:26who's going to be the one to step up tonight.
- 15:28And ultimately, sometimes I'm not confident in his ability to
- 15:31make that choice. So to recap, it's J dub, it's
- 15:35the rotations, it's the bench. And it's Mark Dagnold pretty
- 15:40much. I do want to mention one thing.
- 15:42Do you know that Luka Doncic has a like not?
- 15:45Like 78 more fouls drawn than Shay this year and the same
- 15:49amount of games played. And you won't see that anywhere.
- 15:51You will never see that. That's that's a wonderful
- 15:54statue. I think we should post that on.
- 15:56Our Instagram You know that in three less games played.
- 15:58Denny Denny Adya has more fouls drawn than Shay.
- 16:02OK, that is actually crazy. I I Jarvis.
- 16:04Clip You know that in three less games played Devin.
- 16:06Booker has more fouls drawn than Jay.
- 16:10I'm not liking. What I'm hearing, Joe, you know
- 16:12that in three less games play, Nikola Jokic has more fouls
- 16:15drawn than Jay. This ABS I'm so I'm not.
- 16:18Enjoying these stats at all? Really any.
- 16:22Any last? Words here.
- 16:24We need to make our shots. That was the other key point
- 16:28that you didn't put in there. But defensively, we're the
- 16:31number one defense and at the end of the day, it just comes
- 16:35down to the shot making. As long as we make shots at a
- 16:38better than 32% clip, like if we can get close to 3538% even,
- 16:45pretty much unbeatable. I know Gabe's made this point a
- 16:49bunch of times and we thought we had it with McCain and Joe.
- 16:56When it doesn't work, it just, you know, feels super, I guess,
- 17:01aggravating because we know we're able to win pretty much
- 17:04every other matchup. I mean, I think there was a stat
- 17:08alongside that two and six one where we're like 55 and 10
- 17:13against every other opponent. So really only losing to these
- 17:17couple matchups and the rest of them we can just win strictly
- 17:21off of defense. These other three, I think we've
- 17:24got to get our shot makers involved, but they just got to
- 17:27hit shots. Like SGA was passing out a
- 17:30bunch. He got 33 points by himself on
- 17:32great efficiency, so you can't even blame the loss on him
- 17:35'cause he's your star player, playing amazing and is on top of
- 17:39it sharing the basketball as much as he can.
- 17:42I think he got ten assist regardless and there were still
- 17:45more assists to be had. He could have had 10 more.
- 17:47There were just not enough shots that were made.
- 17:49So I it's been a consistent theme for the whole year.
- 17:53Yes, I'd be curious to see if there's a stat for in in terms
- 17:57of open shots created because it it would be a tough stat to
- 18:01figure out given what's considered, but I know there's
- 18:06something like that. I feel like even if the numbers
- 18:09don't have him ranked high, if you just watch him play, it's so
- 18:12obvious that he is one of the best when it comes to finding
- 18:15the open man and he'll do it effortlessly.
- 18:18I mean, there are a few times where we've seen Shay have that
- 18:21Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony mentality where it's like, yeah,
- 18:24there's a guy wide open in the corner, but screw him, I'm
- 18:28putting this up. You know, Shay will look for
- 18:29that open guy. And I, I like that.
- 18:32I prefer that decision. But like Savier said, we got to
- 18:35start hitting those shots because ultimately that's
- 18:37starting to limit Shay's ability.
- 18:38And it's not because of him. It's because Shay's going to
- 18:41always lay down his own opportunity to get his teammates
- 18:45open. So it's it's hurting Shay.
- 18:47It's hurting what he could be doing because he's never going
- 18:49to take that. He's very rarely going to step
- 18:51up and take that shot because he wants someone else to hit it.
- 18:53And I mean, there's times where he takes over.
- 18:55There's times where we've seen it.
- 18:56You can see the look in his eyes.
- 18:57He gets aggressive. He scores like 14 points and 1/4
- 19:01and you're just like, this guy's insane. 9 times out of 10
- 19:04though, he's he's hitting the open guy and he's going to keep
- 19:06doing that. And ultimately what I just want
- 19:08to end off with here on my good note though is to add is we just
- 19:11won the finals and we just got so much experience from it.
- 19:14These are regular season games. Loud City's going to take over
- 19:18and when we're on the road, we are winning games in the play
- 19:19offs last year as well. We have the experience.
- 19:22We just came off a championship. I feel like our whole team's
- 19:24going to step up when they need to.
- 19:26That's kind of where I'm going to end my points is we we're the
- 19:29we're the reigning champs. You know there, there's
- 19:31something that goes to that. It's not just luck.
- 19:32It's not just like, oh, well, you won it last year.
- 19:34So whatever. We just went all the way
- 19:36through. We just made it.
- 19:37We had a hard fight all the way through.
- 19:39We had to went to game seven with the best team behind us.
- 19:42Like we're battle tested. I think everyone's going to step
- 19:45up. All right, we will wrap it up
- 19:47there. Thank you guys so much for
- 19:49tuning into the Bring the Thunder podcast.
- 19:50Drop your thoughts in the comments.
- 19:52What's gone wrong? In these games and you know.
- 19:56Is that a problem? Going into the play offs.
- 19:58What? As I always say, if you like the
- 19:59video, like the video. Subscribe to the channel, turn
- 20:03post notifications on and we'll see you guys.
- 20:05Live. After.
- 20:07The Chicago Bulls game on Friday.
- 20:09See you later and Thunder up baby, let's go.